If you read yesterday’s post, you would rightly assume that I went to sleep at its conclusion.  That was what I thought too.  I did not. 

My little antelope woke up after a 90 minute nap and was very active. She did not take a nap again until 6 pm.  That’s right, six pm, and slept until 8, and went down for the night at 10.  I’m glad it was only 10.  It could have been a lot worse.  Fortunately, she slept until 10:30 this morning. That’s the latest she has ever gotten up.

The night awakenings continue every two hours or so, but I feel like I’m getting the hang of putting her down for her naps and nighttime.  I’m not so afraid of it anymore.  (If you’re thinking what could be so scary, think of not knowing when you will get your rest at night.)

What has changed?  Well, I learned two things.  First, I stopped looking at the clock and started looking at my child.

My child does not fall asleep at 7:30, like a lot of reports I encounter or read about. I’ve tried the bed time routine only to find myself exhausted and frustrated after an hour and a half of trying to get her to go to sleep.  (What routine can last an hour and a half?  It just loses its efficacy if my child isn’t going to sleep.)

What I’m doing instead is observing her for signs of tiredness, and when I see them (crying, fussiness, being clumsy), I nurse her immediately, and she falls asleep very quickly. I transition her to the bed, and she wants my breast again, but then she resumes her sleep.

Here’s the second thing I learned, and I learned this from the animal kingdom about a week ago.

One of my nights when my daughter wasn’t going to bed I lay next to her exhausted and started thinking about animals and how they manage to get their litters to sleep at the same time. I remembered seeing a pig, which probably weighed a thousand pounds, and her piglets sleeping next to her, all except one.  One piglet was squirming and pushing the other piglets, and its mother.  The sow raised its head, looked at the piglet, and put her head down.  The piglet calmed down.

I decided to try this with Polina.  I looked at my daughter and said, “I’m going to sleep.  It’s night time. Good night.”  And with that, I turned to my side, made my boobies available, and pretended to be asleep.

I felt her nudge me, use me to prop herself up, and then, through my eyelashes, I could see her putting her head down on the mattress. Guess what happened next? She fell asleep with her cheek to the mattress and butt up in the air.  It was awesome!

Here I am borrowing 250 page books out of the library when it was a family of pigs that solved my problem. I used the same method night after night, and it has worked great since.

Speaking of which, I had to take a break from writing this because my little antelope started getting fussy.  I nursed her and she fell asleep at 7:15.  I hope she stays asleep through morning.  (Unlikely, I know, but a wish.)  Having time to myself in the evening- what a concept.

Originally written June 19, 2013.